Zindagi or Jeevan Songs Series
I started this series on my Facebook group Yaad Kiya Dil Ne on 18 Oct 20. Since then, many other members have put up these songs. Here, I shall be giving you one of my own, per day.
I hope you liked my choice for Song #47 – Hasne ki chaah ne itna mujhe in Zindagi or Jeevan Songs series. Let’s start with Song #48.
Song #48
Roja jaan-e-mann
Theme-word: Last stanza: Pyar ke bina meri zindagi udaas hai
Love – the Strongest Influence of My Life
I am a Love man. More than anything, I am in love with God’s Creation and all people and things around me and, of course, Lyn. Hence, I am one person who feels exactly as this line in the song. If Love is not there, I am not there.
Roja – 1992 Movie
Even before AR Rahman, the composer, received two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire, I felt that Roja had his best songs and music. Songs like: Dil hai chhota sa, chhoti is asha; this song, Bharat ham ko jaan se bhi pyara hai, Yeh haseen waadiyan ye khula aasman, Rukmani Rukmani shaadi ke baad kya hua.
Whilst Mehboob, the lyricist, paired with Rahman to make a favourite of mine: Tu hi re from Mani Ratnam’s Bombay starring Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala, this song was penned by PK Mishra. At the age of 65 years, he died on the Christmas Day in 2008 in Chennai where he used to reside, even though a Rajasthani.
In the TOI of the day after his death (all national dailies did features on him basically because of the success) I read that he was so confident of the quality of his lyrics that he didn’t even fix up his remuneration for Roja songs. However, after Roja he frequently paired with AR Rahman.
Arvind Swamy was Rishikumar, a cryptologist with R.A.W. He marries Madhoo in the title role purely by accident. On their honeymoon in Kashmir, he is kidnapped by the terrorists and it is left to the 18 years old bride, Roja, to find him and rescue him.
Since, I have written so much about PK Mishra (One needs not write anything about AR Rahman, he is already the greatest), here are the beautiful lyrics of the song that he sings about Roja whilst in the custody of the terrorists:
रोजा जान-ए-मन तू ही मेरा दिल
तुझ बिन तरसे नैना
दिल से ना जाती हैं यादें तुम्हारी
कैसे तुम बिन जीना
आँखों में तू है आँसू में तू है
आँखें बंद कर लूं तो मन में भी तू है
ख़्वाबों में तू साँसों में तू, रोजा …
१) छू के यूं चली हवा जैसे छू गए हो तुम
फूल जो खिले थे वो, शूल बन गए हैं क्यों
जी रहा हूँ इस लिये दिल में प्यार है तेरा
ज़ुल्म सह रहा हूँ क्यों इन्तज़ार है तेरा
तुमसे मिले बिना जान भी ना जाएगी
क़यामत से पहले सामने तू आएगी
कहाँ है तू कैसी है तू, रोजा?
२) ठंडी ठंडी आए हवा तेरा काम क्या यहाँ
मीत नहीं पास में चाँदनी तू लौट जा
फूल क्यों खिले हो तुम ज़ुल्फ़ नहीं वो यहाँ
झुके झुके आसमान मेरी हँसी ना उड़ा
प्यार के बिना मेरी ज़िन्दगी उदास है
कोई नहीं है मेरा सिर्फ़ तेरी आस है
ख़्वाबों में तू, साँसों में तू, रोजा …
The movie was made in 1992 by Mani Ratnam in 1992. In 1993, it was dubbed in Hindi. The movie won three national awards including the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film for National Integration. Suddenly, Mani Ratnam was a name to reckon with.
My Own Poetry
LOVE BEYOND THE PAIN
Don’t love me, O’ sweet, when we meet,
For there is less
Glee in achieving than in yearning.
From here it’s alluring,
The scent of your tress;
I get my joys in burning,
In pining, in longing
And in sorrow,
And waiting for each tomorrow.
I don’t want to strangle my dreams to death,
You, alone, sit in my dream castle
On an island in a grieving river;
And far below
In a dark dungeon I am thrown.
I reach out my hands without catching ye,
Ye outside smile at me.
And, lo! I wish not my hands were free.
I shall wait…wait till the pains are so much,
That they burn themselves in their own scars,
The waters of grieving river’d calm down,
The cell would break its own bars.
Then you and I’ll live away from town,
In a small hut by a joyous brook.
We’d work, we’d eat, we’d play the deep
Game of love,
And thus at last we’d sleep.
The Song
Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy: Roja jaan-e-mann, Tu dil ki dhadakan…..
I hope you enjoyed my choice for Song #48 in the series.
Please await Song #49 – Laakhon hain nigahon mein.
